Now, you at least have an idea of what machine learning is and how useful for businesses and the IT industry in general it is. So, it is high time to learn how to implement these magic algorithms. It is worth noting that there are already several ready-made machine learning tools intended to somehow simplify the work for your developers. Google launched its machine learning service called Awareness API last year. This service allows developers to understand the context in which customers use their smartphones.

China's leading technology companies are on fire, heavily investing in artificial intelligence and building true global presences. McKinsey recently reported that academic and research institutions in the country publish more cited research papers than the US, UK, or any other global leader in AI, producing nearly 10,000 papers in 2015 alone. Backed by strong government mandates and billions of dollars of both private and public investments, China is challenging the US for position of global AI leader. Fearful of competition, the US government is considering placing restrictions on Chinese investments in AI and technology in the United States. In many sectors, such as healthcare, China may already be ahead of America in applying AI to critical public issues.

Amazon is making it easier for developers to add a variety of sound effects to their Alexa skills. The tech giant has launched a library full of built-in audio clips people can use to add -- in Amazon's words -- "unique sounds" to their creations. Of course, by the time most developers are done tweaking their skills to add the audio clips, they'll no longer seem unique. In fact, you should probably probably get used to hearing the same thing again and again. But developers do have quite a wide selection to choose from with 14 categories that include sounds you'd usually hear in cartoons and sci-fi shows, as as well as sounds of nature, humans and animals.

With the Apple HomePod, the cotton that has been in our ears since the arrival of the first smart speaker has been removed. The HomePod sounds far better than the popular smart speakers from Amazon, Google--and even Sonos. That's what I've been asking myself during my week testing the HomePod, which goes on sale Friday for $350. In the last three years, Amazon Echo and Google Home have set tens of millions of us at ease with speakers that listen for our commands. Of course, Apple has a long history of crushing incumbents--see MP3 players and smartphones.

In 2011, Gartner had prophesied that "By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships with the enterprise without interacting with a human." We are still a few years away from 2020, yet we can see that the prophesy is almost true. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the customer experience as we used to know it. Unrelenting pressure to not just to fulfill but to surpass the customer expectations has forced the CMOS to harness the power of AI. Apple's Siri, Amazon's Echo, Google's Assistant are some of the popular examples where AI is being used to enhance customer experience.

Last quarter, the market size of smart home speakers grew by 30 percent. According to a report published by CIRP, the number of installed Amazon Echo speaker devices is 20 million units and Google Home devices is 7 million units. Last quarter, 7 million smart speakers were sold in the USA.

Perhaps the most important choice you need to make is your preferred software: Just like phones and laptops, streaming devices have their own operating systems. So you should choose a platform that fits two criteria: It must play your favorite content and work well with the devices you already own. For example, if you want to watch shows and movies purchased from iTunes, then you need the only device capable of working with that software: the 4K Apple TV ($150 and up on Amazon). If you're all-in on the Apple ecosystem--you rely on a Mac computer or an iPhone--then you'll want this option. Android users, on the other hand, should lean toward devices, such as the 4K Nvidia Shield ($180 and up on Amazon), that run the Android TV operating system. This works best with Android-based video apps, everything from YouTube to Plex, although it can't play your iTunes content.

Blue Jeans Network Inc. and Voicera have partnered to offer an in-meeting transcription service within the Blue Jeans platform. The transcription technology uses Voicera's artificial intelligence assistant, Eva. Blue Jeans, a cloud-based video conferencing provider based in Mountain View, Calif., initially announced support for Eva in November for features such as note taking and identifying key moments in the meeting. The partnership has expanded Eva's capabilities to include full-meeting recordings with a searchable transcript. The transcription technology integration with the Eva assistant is available to all Blue Jeans users.

Avatars, chatbots and virtual assistants are getting smarter by the day, and the AI that powers them is helping customers get more of the right content at the right time. But humans will remain as important as ever. Nigel Piper looks at how (wo)man and machine can work successfully in tandem.

This guest post was contributed by Steve Sirich, Head of Marketing at Bing Ads, Microsoft. There's no doubt that technology is reshaping the way that brands engage with consumers. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, such as Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa, are advancing rapidly and have become increasingly ubiquitous in our daily lives, transforming how we interact with the world around us. As consumers we tend to embrace these technologies because they satisfy our desire for convenience and personalization. As AI and machine learning become more capable and more embedded in our digital experiences, brands will also have to rethink how they engage with consumers.